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Airline performance improves for first time in five years, according to Airline Quality RatingYou鈥檙e listening to the podcast edition of the 麻豆传媒 audio newsline. Learn more about 麻豆传媒 鈥� the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers 鈥� on the Web at .
According to the 19th annual national Airline Quality Rating, Hawaiian was the best-performing airline in 2008. The rating is conducted annually by researchers Dean Headley of 麻豆传媒 and Brent Bowen of Saint Louis University.
Hawaiian was followed in the rating by AirTran, JetBlue, Northwest and Alaska; the second five were Southwest, Frontier, Continental, American, US Airways; and No. 11 was United, followed by Delta, SkyWest, Mesa, Comair, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast.
The AQR, as an industry standard, uses objective performance-based data to compare quality among airlines. The study ranked the 17 largest U.S. airlines in on-time arrivals, baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints.
Dean Headley, co-author of the national Airline Quality Rating at 麻豆传媒, says the improvement in baggage handling was particularly noteworthy in 2008.
Headley: 鈥淥f the four things we look at, the one that got better the most was baggage handling, and it improved by like 25 percent, which is wonderful. And it probably needed to, given the fact that people are now paying for baggage; they would have had a real problem had they lost the same number of bags and then charging people for that privilege. It would have been a disaster."
And in a marked change from recent years, all 17 airlines improved their performance in 2008, as Headley explains.
Headley: "The domestic airline industry in 2008 generally got better, which is a good thing with all the other news we've got, but all the airlines did improve their airline quality scores for 2008.
"Looking at the four elements that we look at 鈥� on-time performance, baggage handling, customer complaints and denied boardings 鈥� all four of those got better as an industry this year. It's the first time I think that's happened in a long time, if ever, and it's a good thing. They needed to get better."
Headley explains some of the reasons airline performance improved last year.
Headley: 鈥淭he improvement seems to have at least two elements to it 鈥� number one, the lower capacity that's currently in the system. We didn't experience that prior to this. It was just after 2001, the 9/11 attacks, and 2002, when the capacity was this low again. So capacity reductions are part of the reason it works better, simpler system. And the fact that the airlines are, with that reduced capacity, seeing fewer people; also the economy scared away business travelers, scared away leisure travelers."
Headley says with fewer people flying, the industry has another window of opportunity to improve the infrastructure.
Headley: 鈥淚n 2002, we saw a lower capacity as a result of the 9/11 attacks. That was our previous time when capacity was at a low ebb. We're seeing that again. We need to be able to fix the infrastructure. We know it works better when it's simpler and less demanded, so we need to take the opportunity to fix air traffic control, let's say, while we have a lower capacity problem."
So what does the Airline Quality Ranking mean to the flying public? Headley explains.
Headley: 鈥淚n 2007 we had the worst year ever and we've been doing this for 19 years. So, they had to get better. The flying public wasn't going to tolerate anything other than that. So, it's good that they got better, and I think the public can be happy of the fact that they're not going to lose as many bags and they're going to get there more on time and less hassle."
Headley says the flying public can expect competitive prices but fewer available seats this year.
Headley: 鈥淚 think the traveling public will find out that there's still a lot of good prices, good competitive prices to get from point A to point B. The one glitch to this all is, with the capacity reductions, there's fewer seats. While you might get a good price, you have to be careful about the fact that there's not as many seats flying as there were a year ago, and it's harder to find a seat."
The best performing airlines in 2008, for the most part, were the low-fare carriers.
Headley: 鈥淲hen you kind of draw back and look at the whole Airline Quality Rating, the low-fare carriers tend to be in the top third or so of the ratings. The legacy carriers tend to take up the middle ground, and what I call fulfillment carriers, the old regional airlines, tend to take up the bottom tier of this.
"The most improved airline this particular time was US Air. It didn't help its ranking that much, but it did help. The least improved was United, and there were several airlines that made good strides in various areas, but the overall picture is a positive picture, and I think that's good for the flying public."
The challenge, researchers add, is whether the airlines will continue to improve performance as the economy gets back on its feet and more people start flying again.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for 麻豆传媒.